Pilgrimage to protest child conscription

BEAVER FALLS, Pa.- An estimated 55 students from Geneva College will join students from area schools for an overnight humanitarian demonstration in Pittsburgh′s Market Square Saturday, April 29. The local demonstration, called Global Night Commute, hopes to help end the war in Northern Uganda where children are abducted and forced to fight as soldiers.

Global Night Commute is a worldwide effort organized by Invisible Children, Inc. The event begins with participants walking from the Southside Works Parking Garage to Market Square. This short pilgrimage represents the daily commute that thousands of Ugandan children make every night to avoid capture by the Lord′s Resistance Army (LRA). The participants will spend the night in Market Square from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., Sunday. The sleep out is a similar experience to what these children go through every night.

Organizers estimate that over forty thousand people in 136 cities across the country will participate. Event planners used Facebook.com to promote and recruit participants.

The event has two primary objectives. First is to end the conflict and protect the civilians in Northern Uganda. Second is to ensure adequate humanitarian assistance to the Invisible Children in internally displaced camps.